NY - Wendy Jerome, 14, raped and killed, Rochester, 22 Nov 1984 *Arrest in 2020*

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Lengthy article with lots of detail, includes video.
rbbm

December 16, 2014
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/12/16/wendy-jerome-cold-case-rochester/20510947/

"Marlene Jerome doesn't cry much anymore.

There were tears when an officer came to her Denver Street door on Thanksgiving night in 1984 and told her that her daughter had been raped and killed, left lying near a Webster Avenue school a couple blocks from her home.

There have been some tears looking through a box full of her daughter's items — the ones that her late husband didn't throw away in an effort to help Marlene move on — her Smurfs, her miniature Care Bears, her diary.

There were tears at birthdays — Wendy was born Nov. 1 and she would have turned 42 this month.

But for the most part, she keeps the tears at bay. Marlene has trained herself not to get overly emotional, she explains, for a day she is sure will come.

Wendy Jerome was 14 when she was raped and beaten to death Nov. 22, 1984. She was found lying in an alcove of Schools 33 and 11 by a man who said he found her body as he was walking by that evening.

As the years have come and gone, Wendy has become a cold case — never closed or dismissed by Rochester Police Department homicide investigators, but inevitably pushed deeper into a filing cabinet by newer murders"
 
According to the article, this lovely young girl with pretty hair, was beaten so badly she was unrecognizable to her family.
Her Mom is desperate to know who is responsible for this vicious crime committed on her child, raped near her school and left in another spot.
Can the advances in DNA pinpoint her killer?
Even if he is no longer alive, it is important to know who did this.
Did he have other victims?? imo.

http://13wham.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/who-killed-wendy-jerome-17950.shtml
 
This seems unusual, or is it?
Why did the killer allow his victim to dress herself, did he know her, was he ashamed, or was it to just get her to another location? jmo.

"The photos also revealed to her mother what investigators had known from the beginning: Wendy had been allowed to get dressed, to pull on her jeans and a brown sweater jacket with unicorns and hearts on it, even tie her sneakers.

A pink hoodie that Wendy “never went anywhere without” was laid over her beaten face"
http://roc.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121112/NEWS01/311120013/Wendy-Jerome-cold-case
 
So sad :( So young and senseless. I feel for her mom.
BTW I'm from Rochester.

2 Things that stand out from reading the news paper article. I believe he let her get dressed because he told her she could go. He didn't want her to know what he was going to do. Then he covered her face with the jacket after he killed her so that he didn't have to look at what he did. He's not a sociopath but a psychopath. Had remorse even though you would think he was evil for tricking her that she could get dressed and leave. It may have been cruel but he did not want to leave her there unclothed and exposed. JMO
 
Sleuthster said:
So sad :( So young and senseless. I feel for her mom.
BTW I'm from Rochester.

2 Things that stand out from reading the news paper article. I believe he let her get dressed because he told her she could go. He didn't want her to know what he was going to do. Then he covered her face with the jacket after he killed her so that he didn't have to look at what he did. He's not a sociopath but a psychopath. Had remorse even though you would think he was evil for tricking her that she could get dressed and leave. It may have been cruel but he did not want to leave her there unclothed and exposed. JMO
Click to expand...

That makes sense, from a psychopath's perspective. Did he always intend to kill her? Or did she piss him off at the last minute?
 
annegrete said:
That makes sense, from a psychopath's perspective. Did he always intend to kill her? Or did she piss him off at the last minute?
Click to expand...

I believe so. Probably said in a softer voice, ok I'm going to let you go. Get dressed. Then she started walking away and he came up behind her and tried to slash her throat (4 inch cut according to the news story) which didn't work. They said she was killed in a different spot then where she was assaulted.

Reading further down in the story, I think that the guy who found her fits this profile. I wonder what happened with the DNA they tested in 2012.
 
fa7bc09e-1002-43bb-9ed9-b92648508b21_zps9850c489.jpg


http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/12/16/wendy-jerome-cold-case-rochester/20510947/
 
Bump.

This case still gives me chills. I have friends who lived in that neighborhood as children around that time. Roughly the area around Webster, over to Bay St., and up to Clifford.

This murder devastated the neighborhood, and caused a lot of families in the area, mostly Italian-Americans, ti flee to the subirbs. That girl was just a little older than the folks I know who grew up there, and they remember her from grade school.
 
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/12/16/wendy-jerome-cold-case-rochester/20510947/
Dec. 16, 2014
"There was a lot of evidence that was collected at the scene, there was a lot of good police work in collecting items, even back then, that puts us in a position to now maybe solve this through forensic technology," Hahn said.
DNA taken at the crime scene, Hahn explains, never got a hit on the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a computer program that collects DNA profiles into a local, state and national database from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons.
That's unusual after all this time, Hahn explains, because criminals capable of such a brutal crime are usually arrested for another crime later on.
Click to expand...
What isn't in that data bank, though, are people who take their own lives, including the 22-year-old man who found Wendy's body that Thanksgiving night. He was interviewed by police but was not considered a major suspect.
Autopsies on suicide victims, however, are conducted, and their DNA profiles are kept.
Without identifying that man by name, Hahn and District Attorney Sandra Doorley said they have requested of the Monroe County Crime Lab a DNA comparison of the materials found at the crime scene with those of that man, who killed himself roughly six years after Wendy's murder.
He likely knew Wendy because he frequented the recreation center; he was African-American, matching the hair type found at the crime scene; and he acted "odd" by visiting the home of a friend and returning to the body before calling 911, Hahn said.
"He indicated that he was on his way to a bar, he was cutting through the school and saw someone laying there and thought the person was intoxicated, he got closer and saw blood, went to a friend's house to confirm what they were seeing," Hahn said. "They went back to the house and, it's odd, a lot of back and forth from the crime scene, before calling police."
Click to expand...

If the suicide victim is ruled out, "what would really be ideal is if there is somebody else who was involved in this crime, if we can get another profile so we could get a hit from someone else."
Click to expand...
 
I am Wendy's Mom and would like to say that as of recent the Rochester Police are still using updated systems for testing and retesting things from that night. I personally have waited many years to have some closure and no one is giving up yet for the answers we seek. I urge anyone with any information to contact Crime Stoppers, as there is still a reward for a conviction. Or, contact the Rochester Police Dept. with any thing they can follow up on. Thank you ever so much
 
Marlene Jerome said:
I am Wendy's Mom and would like to say that as of recent the Rochester Police are still using updated systems for testing and retesting things from that night. I personally have waited many years to have some closure and no one is giving up yet for the answers we seek. I urge anyone with any information to contact Crime Stoppers, as there is still a reward for a conviction. Or, contact the Rochester Police Dept. with any thing they can follow up on. Thank you ever so much
Click to expand...

Welcome to Ws Marlene Jerome, glad you found us, but sorry about the tragic circumstances that brought you here, the senseless loss of your beautiful daughter, Wendy.
 
Marlene Jerome said:
I am Wendy's Mom and would like to say that as of recent the Rochester Police are still using updated systems for testing and retesting things from that night. I personally have waited many years to have some closure and no one is giving up yet for the answers we seek. I urge anyone with any information to contact Crime Stoppers, as there is still a reward for a conviction. Or, contact the Rochester Police Dept. with any thing they can follow up on. Thank you ever so much
Click to expand...

Hi Mrs. Jerome,

I'm from Rochester and lived near you on Iroquois Street from 1979 to 1985. I've thought about Wendy many times because I walked across the park the night before she was killed. Also and more significantly, I was attacked on Greeley street at age 14 in 1981; got away somehow but police came etc. When I saw the 2014 article, which my sister forwarded to me, I called the prosecutor in Wendy's case to tell her about it, but they seemed focused on DNA, which is understandable. Always thought it was the same person. If the case still isn't solved, maybe something I remember could help. If you want to know more send me a private message.
 
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